Leaving for Deadhorse Alaska

I know it is not technically an exotic hunt, but as I grew up in Washington hunting blacktail and elk. Heading to the top of the world to try for caribou seems pretty exotic. I have never been and I know that many of you have traveled and hunted other states and countries. Do you have any advice or wisdom that you would be willing to share? I know we will be more the 20 miles out of Deadhorse and more then 5 miles off of the "Haul road". Has anyone hunted that area, or just Alaska Caribou in general? It is a rifle hunt and I will be shooting a 300wsm with a 8.5-20 Leupold pushing 180gn bullet. I have been following the weather and it should be mid 20's to low 40's with winds in the teens. I feel like I have done all I can, rifle is dead on at 200yds and in calm winds I feel 400yds would be a realistic shot. Just looking for any help that MAY turn the odds in my favor. Thank you to everyone and sorry for posting this to "exotics", but it seemed like it might be ok.

Sent you PM

Will be waiting for your story and photos. Good eating!

Can't wait to hear all about it! Good luck and stay safe!!!!

I've been up there and hunted caribou outside of Umiat. My best advice would be to be choosy in what you take. You'll most likely see lots and lots of caribou and each new day can bring a whole new batch as they are constantly moving. Look over the animals. Take your time deciding which to harvest. It's easy to get dazzled by the size of their antlers and take one too early, only to have some buyer's remorse later as you see more and bigger double shovel animals.

Stories & pix please! Sounds exciting!
Diane

Well dont you just suck
Just kidding but i am jealous of you , ope you aheva great time and take plenty of pics to share.

Thank you everyone. I am getting pretty excited. We leave in about 36 hours for 8 days. I am gonna try get as many pics as possible to share. Bowhunter Only, I understand what you are talking about and I would like to say I won't get "buck fever" but I know me. There is more then a good chance that I do get a little to excited and shoot a lesser bull. The only good thing is I know me pretty good and I knew that was a possibility so I opted for 2 tags . That way if I can keep it together I end up with 2 great animals otherwise I get some great photos of my 1st animal and then take a "mulligan" and start looking for that trophy.

Good Luck sir. A Caribou hunt is on my bucket list for a few years from now!!!

I work up there and will restate what Bowhunt said, there are a lot of them and lots of opportunity so don't take the first one. Look them over and then decide. I am in the oil field where there is no hunting allowed and they are a pest. They block the road and walk right past you. Wish you the best of luck.

I have been up that way and agree with choosing carefully.

Have a back up pair of rubber hunting boots and rain gear! You will love it. Stay safe.

My wife and I just returned from there. We hunted with TNT outfitters. We did the outfitted hunt where they provided everything but we took care of everything ourselves. Walking in the tundra is a pain so stick to the riverbeds as much as possible. We were unsuccessful but we did see several caribou in the distance. We had two tags each and were not able to get Into range of a decent bull. We saw several groups the first couple of days but it was snowing hard with 25 mph winds. You could only see about half a mile at best which isn't much when you are trying to glass for miles to see where to cut them off. Twice we had herds headed our way with decent bulls but we had hunters with boats show up and and shoot them before they got to us. Once the storms cleared out, we didn't see anything for 5 days. I was glassing from 630am until 10:30pm. Sun up until sun down. The last day we had to hunt I started to see groups again but it was too late in the evening to try to make a stalk. There was another couple that did the same as us that were unsuccessful as well. The outfitters had two fully guided groups of hunters as well and only one of those groups were successful. The group that got caribou traveled with the guide an hour down river to the brooks mountains were they saw several, they said over 350 caribou coming from the mountains back into the tundra. They killed four very big bulls as they crossed the river. The guides said they think the caribou went up to the edges of the mountains for protection from the storms. It was coming from the south west so the mountains would help block the winds. We did see several foxes, one grizzly every day and one wolf. The fishing was fun and the ptarmigan hunting was too easy. The outfitters were very nice but the tent sucked because it sweated inside and leaked. It would only get up to 45 degrees with the heater on but the outfitter said he was testing it this year and would get rid of it due to our bad review. It was upsetting to compete with the other hunters who had boats but we still had fun because all of the positives outweighed the negatives. I just wish I would have not been too picky and taken a cow or small bull so I could have at least been able to try the meat. I did have a shot opportunity at a beautiful black fox but my gun was frozen.